The most effective bodybuilders know that it’s more important to train smart than it is to train hard. The difference is akin to being a highly skilled assassin with a sniper rifle versus an idiot with an Uzi. The latter is likely to waste his time and ammo firing aimlessly and causing masses of property damage, while the former will prove far more efficient with a single shot.
In the gym, the reign of ‘broscience’ is over, and the most effective lifters are the ones who take a scientific approach and manage things like overtraining, hormone levels and cadence to maximise their results.
Training to increase testosterone levels is a perfect example of this. Not all exercises are created equal when it comes to hormonal response and by choosing those movements that can best elevate testosterone, the smart bodybuilder will increase their muscle gains, their fat loss and their energy levels and determination.
It’s not just about ‘the burn’ then, or how heavy you can lift, it’s about how effectively you’re triggering that release of hormones and putting your body in a powerful anabolic state.
Here’s how you can use exercises to boost testosterone.
Compound Versus Isolation
The most important thing to understand when aiming to increase testosterone through exercise is that the more muscle groups you train in unison, the more additional testosterone you will be likely to produce. Each time you involve more muscle groups in your training then, your body responds by producing more anabolic hormones as it knows it’s going to have more work to do meaning you can continuously magnify the effect.
An isolation movement as you know is an exercise that targets a single very specific muscle – such as the preacher curl which only targets the biceps. These types of movements have their uses, but they are inferior when it comes to adding testosterone in which case you will want to use compound movements like the bench press, the squat or the deadlift. All of these will make the muscles in your body work in unison which will result in a far greater hormonal response.
Cardiovascular Training
Many bodybuilders whose primary concern is in gaining mass and power will shy away from cardiovascular training as though it had the lurgy. The concern is that running will burn through muscle mass and use up carbs resulting in a skinny physique and the precise opposite of what they’re aiming for.
In fact though this generally isn’t true. For starters, muscle is one of the very last things that the body will burn when looking for sources of energy meaning you’ll get lean and bulky long before you’ll get skinny. More to the point though, running will burn fat – and fat carried on the body reduces testosterone.
Leg Training
We all know what folly it is to skip leg day, but in case you never got the memo here’s another compelling reason to make sure you spend adequate time training your legs. Thing is, simply having muscle mass causes your body to produce more testosterone while you sleep, again because your system recognises that there’s more ‘anabolism’ to be done. Thus, simply by building muscles in your legs that you might have previously ignored you will be able to convince your body to produce more testosterone. It helps too that your leg muscles are the largest muscle groups in your body, if you’re still skipping them then you’re seriously undermining your own efforts.
Meditation
Most bodybuilders don’t really think of meditation as a valuable part of their training routine but I’m here to tell you that you should. The reason is that bodybuilding is as much a mental game as it is a physical game, and even your chemistry ultimately comes down to how effective you are at managing your moods and your thoughts.
If you want to produce more testosterone then one thing you absolutely must avoid is stress. Stress causes the body to produce cortisol and this is one of the worst enemies of testosterone as well as having negative impacts on the quality of your workouts and more.
Using meditation you can learn to leave your troubles behind and just switch off at the end of the day before bed, or to check your problems out at the door when you get to the gym. This can greatly increase focus and performance while transforming your body into an efficient muscle building, weight-lifting machine!
